WATER/SEWER: Evolve or Die

Gainesville Regional Utilities continually expands and refines its GIS into a fully digital and highly capable system and a model for communities

GIS at Gainesville (Fla.) Regional Utilities has gone from an outsourced system comprised of infrequently updated paper maps to an in-house, fully digital system that consists of a utility-wide GIS data-viewing application, survey grade GPS equipment, mobile GIS data viewing, inspections and redlining, and an in-house work management system tied to the GIS.

“So, yes, we’ve come a long way,” says Steve McElroy, water/ wastewater GIS administrator. Owned by the City of Gainesville, GRU is Florida’s fifth largest utility and is unusually comprehensive, providing electric, natural gas, water, wastewater and telecommunications services to 89,000 retail and wholesale customers in Gainesville and surrounding unincorporated areas.

The water/wastewater department maintains 1,069 miles of water line, 129 miles of sewer force main, and 593 miles of sewer gravity main. GIS has a clear role to play in administering any big utility’s water and wastewater programs. But GRU’s initial GIS push actually began in the electric department in 1985, with an independent department initiative to build an Automated Mapping/ Facilities Management (AM/FM) system on a mainframe computer.

By combining operational area expertise with enterprise-wide data availability, and by working with traditional support departments like administration, GRU has crafted an approach to GIS that serves all departments well and allows useful growth and evolution. The agency is doing something right: GRU recently took home the 2008 Geospatial Information & Technology Associ-ation (GITA) Excellence Award, a major industry honor that recognizes “dedication, insight and a high degree of initiative in the outstanding application of geospatial technology.”

Starting early

As early as 1988, facility maps produced by this system were being used in other departments, and in 1991 the mainframe system was migrated to an ESRI-based system with the goal of integration into all departments.

In the words of supervising engineer Larry W. Callis, the system that has evolved is “an integral part of nearly all utility functions and can now best be described as a successful and robust partnership between the operating departments and the planning, information technology and administrative departments.”

McElroy notes that discipline-specific data layers are owned and maintained by the operating groups, but all data is corporately owned and maintained, and available to all segments of the utility and local government. “We don’t really have a GIS department, just GIS specialists like myself that support the different operational areas,” he says.

Callis says the concept, design, development and funding of new GIS applications is centered within the operating areas. Deployment is realized through a partnership between the operating and information technology departments.

For the water/wastewater depart-ment, this meant that during the mid- to late-1990s, much time was spent building digital asset and facility plans, and working with information technology and other departments to overlay these plans onto a common land base. By 2000, water and wastewater maps were routinely available and included maps and views like alignments, facilities, manholes and conduits, and profile sheets.

Getting precise

One-foot contours and high-resolution aerial photography are available throughout the system. Since then, the system has become steadily more comprehensive, sophisticated and useful. The department uses its own licenses of ESRI ArcGIS and ArcFM to update and produce maps, along with customized scripts and editing tools to efficiently enter as-built information.

Maps are now updated at least weekly. To gather in-house and developer as-built information, the water/wastewater department has its own robotic total station and survey-grade GPS RTK receivers. Custom ArcReader applications are used for enterprise-wide GIS data viewing. “All of our engineers, planners and scientists have access to this system, which provides up-to-date GIS data viewing for any of their project needs,” McElroy says.

The ESRI-based system is extended with third-party software. For example, Cityworks from Azteca Systems Inc., is used for work and asset management, and ties directly to the ESRI database without duplication of data. And Bentley’s WaterGEMS and SewerGEMS are used for network modeling, analysis, and design. The two programs integrate with ArcGIS (one of their four supported platforms) and allow them to analyze their water systems directly within ArcGIS. “I don’t deal directly with this,” says McElroy, “I just support the engineers and planners with any geodatabase issues.”

Improving­ processes

Callis says numerous work processes are improved or enhanced by the current GIS. They include record keeping, standardizing of symbols, standardizing of materials and work practices, large- and small-scale project tracking, development review, system planning, system restoration and maintenance, underground facility identification and location, infrastructure information dissemination, and vegetation management.

As in any GIS implementation, achieving buy-in was critical. Callis had a definite plan for building cooperation. “We achieved and maintained buy-in by peer groups, corporate support groups and senior management through continuous project championship by a senior operations manager,” he says.

“We also periodically showcased existing and envisioned methods of GIS, with specific emphasis on real-world applications that would enable improvements to operating groups’ effectiveness and efficiency,” Callis says. Also important were an adequate budget and staff, trust of GIS staff by senior management, improved network resources, and improved relational database technology.

By thinking about buy-in from the beginning, and by including traditional support departments, like administration, in GIS planning, GRU has avoided many of the turf wars that often accompany broad new technologies.

By leaving update and design of new GIS features to operating departments, while also relying on the information technology depart-ment to implement new features, GRU has captured the strengths of its unique mix of utilities, in addition to the traditional strengths of GIS. Both orientations have been keys to the growth of GIS at GRU.

Keeping it all together

Because the GIS has developed over time, mostly in-house, GRU is still discovering new uses for the technology and new ways to integrate it into daily operations. Field access, for example, is still evolving.

“Our IT department has set up several hotspots at strategic locations throughout our service area and that lets field crews download or upload data via a secure FTP client,” McElroy says. “As far as a dynamic system that pushes data both ways on the fly, we don’t have anything like that yet. Some of our field guys do use a remote desktop connection via Sprint broadband cards.”

Still, when full field access arrives, it will likely be perfectly tailored to GRU’s needs in a way that an off-the-shelf system never could be.

Similarly, the utility’s CCTV setup is not yet integrated with the GIS, though McElroy has been thinking about it. GRU uses Granite XP software from CUES Inc. to store and organize video data.

The fact that hands-on operators rather than outside consultants make the integration decisions means GRU ends up with the system that is right for the agency at the time and is not being hurried into decisions that don’t need to be made yet.

Looking ahead, the water/wastewater department is focusing on mobile applications. “We’ve just implemented GO! Sync Mapbook from TC Technolog­y for field inspections, primarily storm response, and redlining,” McElroy says. “We’re right in the middle of configuring and optimizing the applications, and we’ve gone live with a few individuals.”

And McElroy adds that the management team is hoping an enterprise asset-management system will come online within five years or so. “That will be a massive project, and is still in its infancy,” he says. “Ultimately, we’re planning on the system, which will run on SAP, being tied into our GIS.”

Benefits

Callis estimates the benefits from GIS implementation at $3 million. He can’t put hard numbers to everything, but he does know, for example, that reducing the manual mapping staff is saving $360,000 per year, and he puts the annual figure for improved project planning at $25,000.

But he’s also quick to list intangible benefits. Superior customer service is “priceless,” and he likes the “trust by field personnel in the completeness and accuracy of our mapping products.” Other hard-to-quantify benefits include fewer network outages, marketing applications, and better accuracy and detail for mid- and long-term planning.

Having learned by doing, GRU’s home-grown GIS experts are busily giving back to the GIS community in their regions by addressing local groups. Staff members presented on Land Base Layer Maintenance to the Alachua County GIS Users Group, and on Proper Procurement and QA/QC of Digital Orthophotogrammetry to the Alachua County Property Appraiser. By taking leadership roles, they’re raising the bar for geospatial information and products in their region.

GRU’s sense of satisfaction with its own GIS is palpable. The staff is proud of the recognition from GITA, but the tremendously improved utility of the system means even more. “Demonstrated, measured and continuous success has enabled GIS to evolve from an operating departmental effort in the mid-1980s with a grand vision, to that of an invaluable corporate resource of today,” Callis says.

And the really nice thing is that the GIS will only get better with time.



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